


Things We Have Lost

by Luna_Moon22



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akira is a good friend, Ann does her best, Child Neglect, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, It's not as intense as it sounds, Major Original Character(s), Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), POV Original Character, References to Depression, Trauma, Verbal Abuse, so is Ryuji
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-04-24 19:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14361636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Moon22/pseuds/Luna_Moon22
Summary: “My friend… turned his carpet red and I think it looks really nice and I want to ask him about it later but he’s being really quiet so I don’t know how to get him to answer me.” Some small part of her realized she was rambling but the rest of her didn’t care enough to stop.“Ma’am, where are you?”She recited the address, her breathing quickened slightly as she reached the last few words. The carpet was redder than it had been a minute ago.“Alright, now I need your name.”“R-Reina.” She sucked in a breath, trying to regain her composure. “R-Reina Akame.”





	1. Prolouge

“Hey, I thought we had plans. What happened?” Reina dropped her bag about half-way up the stairs. The bag of the person who presumably resided at the top was already sitting on the landing. Reina found this odd of course. In her experience, he was far too organized to keep something important in such a hazardous place. However, if her friend was going to drop his bag half-way up the stairs then Reina was going to respect that decision and do the same. Minus the burden of her schoolbag, Reina continued up the stairs. 

The hallway on the second floor of her friend’s apartment was eerily quiet. No noise. No sign that the person she was looking for was even there. Of course he was. Reina had no doubt that she would find her friend in this location, but the silence still creeped her out. She stuck a hand in her skirt pocket, grabbing her cell phone and preparing to call an ambulance if need be. She approached the correct door and reached for the handle. 

“Rin?” She called with slight hesitation. Her hand rested on the smooth metal surface of the door handle, waiting for the go-ahead to turn and enter the room. But no response came. She stood in firm silence for about five minutes before electing to try again. 

“Rin? Are you in there?” She called again, gripping the handle with as much of her strength as she could muster. Her hands hurt. Her head started hurting too. “I’m opening the door.” She pushed down, but the door didn’t open. She blinked in confusion. Her friend never locked the door. From what she knew, her friend was not allowed to lock the door. She pushed down again before realizing it was locked from the outside. 

Her stomach dropped as she quickly unlatched the lock. If the door to her friend’s room was locked from the outside that could only mean one thing. She hoped to whatever existed in the universe that she was wrong. All she could do was hope that she was wrong. 

She threw the door open, preparing herself for any number of horrifying and painful sights. Most involved her friend being either unconscious or simply in too much pain to speak. Some involved him being missing altogether. None involved the scenario actually laid out before her once the door opened, gliding just over the crimson carpet underneath Reina’s feet. It took almost three full seconds for Reina to notice the color of the carpet. Her friend must have changed it. She noted that it looked nice. The color complimented the room well, and the way that the color didn’t reach the edges of the room seemed very intentional. She made a mental note to ask him where he got the idea from as she typed a number into the keypad on her phone, bringing it to her ear. 

“Hello, what is your emergency?”

“The carpet’s red.” Was all Reina managed to say. 

“Excuse me?”

“My friend… turned his carpet red and I think it looks really nice and I want to ask him about it later but he’s being really quiet so I don’t know how to get him to answer me.” Some small part of her realized she was rambling but the rest of her didn’t care enough to stop. 

“The carpet’s red? How does your friend look?” The person on the other end of the line seemed like they were starting to get it.

“He’s on the floor. Um. I don’t know. He’s not moving. There’s a lot of red. The carpet looks nice in this color. But it doesn’t reach the walls. It looks kinda cool but also really weird, y’know?”

“Ma’am, where are you?”

She recited the address, her breathing quickened slightly as she reached the last few words. The carpet was more red than it had been a minute ago. 

“Alright, now I need your name.”  
“R-Reina.” She sucked in a breath, trying to regain her composure. “R-Reina Akame.”


	2. Chapter 1

“Akame-san.”

“Yes?” Reina looked up in response to the teacher’s voice. 

“I called on you. What is your answer?” While the phrase may have been meant to seem demanding, the teacher’s tone came across as more pitying than anything. 

“I’m sorry. What was the question?” Reina gave a small smile, looking up at the teacher through her long brown bangs. The hot pink tips of her hair fell just to the sides of her eyes and kept her attention away from the blackboard, and, in turn, the teacher. Her soft brown eyes, hollow and empty in appearance, danced across the blackboard as the teacher repeated their question. 

“Can you tell us what Histrionic Personality Disorder is?”

All Reina could think was where on Earth could that question have come from? 

“Um. Something about being overly emotional. Like, being hysterically happy or excessively sad?” Reina phrased her answer as a question because she was legitimately unsure of whether or not her answer was correct. She had heard it mentioned around her parents occasionally, and from what she had heard she thought it suited the two of them perfectly.

“Your answer is mostly correct. You forgot to add that those suffering are often also very attention-oriented and will seek it out from those around them.” The teacher returned a soft smile. “Thank you, Akame-san.”

Reina nodded and returned to staring at the pink highlights in her bangs. One hand reached up and firmly clasped its fingers around the pink. As if checking that the pink was really there before her hand fell back onto her desk and on top of her open notebook. Open, yet empty. Her pen remained capped with no signs of it having been used, and the few other supplies stored securely inside her desk were completely untouched.

The teacher finally stopped talking, and the room went silent before it exploded with sound once again. The sounds of everyone standing up around her as she remained planted in her chair. The sounds of those around her making after-school plans with their friends while her mouth remained firmly closed. 

“Akame-san?” Her head practically whipped back to look at the person who had just placed a hand on her shoulder. Her entire body tensed under the person’s touch and she felt the urge to grab the person and slam them into the ground. But the person’s eyes showed no hostility. The sparkling blue was instead filled with concern and even care for the rest of her face followed suit. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Reina grabbed the bag hanging off the side of her desk, pulling it onto her shoulder as she stood up. 

“Are you sure?” The girl’s eyes only filled with more worry as Reina pulled away from her hand. 

“I’m sure.” She glanced at the other girl. “Thank you for your concern.” It came out colder than she intended it to. 

“N-No problem?” The girl seemed unsure of how to respond to that as her expression twisted slightly in confusion. Reina simply sighed as she walked away from the girl with the sparkling blue eyes and the pale blonde hair, heading towards the classroom door. She brushed past a male with full blond hair and deep brown eyes, who seemed to be waiting by the door of the classroom. She vaguely recognized him as a resident of the neighboring class. He gave her a nod of recognition as she passed. Or maybe it was a nod of condolence. 

She pushed her bag up onto her shoulder, keeping her eyes pointed down as she moved through the hallway towards the nearest flight of stairs. Every single noise around her sounded as though someone was speaking through a megaphone directly into her ears. Every time someone said her name it felt as though someone had screamed directly into her ear with that megaphone and then violently grabbed her shoulders and started shaking her. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in a tiny ball and let someone console her. 

But there was no one there to console her. 

“Poor Akame…”

“She has no one else, does she?”

“No other friends?”

“She doesn’t have any.”

Reina clenched her teeth, walking down the stairs as quickly as she could get away with without it being considered dangerous. The pitying eyes of the people around her burned right through her being and left her feeling more powerless than she had ever felt in her life. 

“Akame-san–“

“Leave me alone.” She almost growled at the girl with the short born hair and the braid going across the top of her head. The taller girl nearly seemed to recoil in fright, or something along those lines, at the tone Reina took when confronting her. 

“No, Akame-san, I need to talk to you.”

“Leave me alone, Nijima-san.” She growled again, pushing past the girl whose eyes were filled to the absolute brim with pity. 

Reina made a beeline directly for the entrance of the school, trying to get out before anyone else could stop her to spread their pity even more than they already had. Once she was out the door, she practically dove across the street and into the alley directly across from the school. She took a deep breath, her shoulders relaxed as much as she thought was feasibly possible, considering the circumstances. Finally, the pitying glares of her peers had left her.

After a few minutes, Reina had finally regained her composure enough to leave the alley. She pulled the strap of her school bag up once again and took a step out of the alley, back into the stream of students exiting the school building. She felt fewer gazes focused squarely on her, but the presence of staring students was undeniable as she finally reached the train station and walked down the stairs. She swiped her card and walked down the platform, moving as far away from the crowds as she could physically get without needing to move to stand on the tracks.

For a moment, she considered standing on the tracks. 

‘Not like anyone would miss me.’

The train came four minutes later. 

Reina stepped through its doors.


	3. Chapter 2

The next day was different.

Reina didn’t have school that day, so it couldn’t have been the same. An escape from the overwhelming pity and patronization was something she certainly felt as though she needed, but this was not how she wanted it. The painful underestimation of her peers at school was replaced with something undeniably different, but worse.

“Reina!” The harsh voice snapped from the other room. She let out a sigh, nearly face-planting on the bed in front of her.

“What!?”

“Get out here, now!”

Reina sighed again and hopped off the bed, shuffling up the hallway and down the stairs. She continued into the next room and staring at the adult seated at the dining room table. “What do you want?” She stated lowly and in an almost deadpan tone.

“Just thought I’d let you know that Ryouma’s conviction was finalized.” The woman smiled as if she were happy with the news. “Of course it would be, all the evidence pointed to him.”

“I don’t care,” Reina replied.

“Why not? Didn’t he do something to you? What was it again?” Reina’s mother grinned, looking at her daughter through the corner of her eyes. “Oh right. He killed his son.”

“Shut up.” Reina growled.

“That’s rude.” She frowned. “You should respect your elders.”

“Just leave me alone. Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“It’s such a shame, you know?” Anya Akame sighed, crossing her arms and then her legs. “That Rin would be the one to die. Truly such a damn shame. He was such a good kid, you know?”

Reina glared down at her. “Of course I know. What does that have to do with anything you were saying to me?”

“Such a shame that a wonderful young man like Rin died such a gruesome death, while a little brat like you continues to live.” She drawled in an almost evil fashion. “It really is a shame. If only you had been Ryouma’s child instead of ours. If only Rin had been our son. We would have treated him so much better than that monster.”

“You literally just said you would trade me off to him.” Reina tightened her grip on her own forearms. “Is this all you want from me?”

“No, one last thing.” Anya reached across the table to grab a sheet of paper, holding it up for Reina to see. “This is an email that Kawakami-sensei sent us.”

“Did you print that out?” She raised an eyebrow at her mother.

“Of course I did. I would never let you look at my email.” She paused. “Can you guess what the email says?”

“No. What does it say?” Reina kept her eyebrow up.

“‘I’m very sorry to report this, but Reina Akame-san has not been participating in class anywhere near as much as she used to. She’s been cold, callous, and frankly mean to most of her classmates. I am considering stepping in next time I witness an incident of this nature.’” She put the paper down on the table. “Well, Reina? Do you have something to say about it?”

“No. I’m leaving.” She turned to leave, but felt a firm grip on the back of her shirt before she could get further than a step and a half.

“I’m sorry, Darling, but we have to talk about your behavior recently.” Anya pulled Reina back. “It’s been absolutely inappropriate recently. Just because you lost your good friend is not an excuse for you to lash out at the people around you.” She frowned. “Remember that your actions don’t just reflect on you, they reflect on us.”

“…Kawakami-sensei didn’t write that, did she?” Reina stared down at the ground, clenching her fists.

“Of course she did.” Anya grinned. “What makes you think that?”

“Because Kawakami-sensei would never write something like that. If you think she would then you’ve obviously never met Kawakami-sensei.” Reina shot her mother a glare, her eyes filled with rage along with pure and utter hatred. “Let go of me.”

“Now that’s it.” Anya stood, shifting her grip from Reina’s shirt to her arm, pulling her daughter close. “You will treat me with respect, young lady.”

“…” Reina’s head felt fuzzy.

“And, if you don’t, arrangements for you can be made.”

She lifted her free arm to her forehead. The room was starting to spin around her. Spin spin spinning like a top. Her head pounded and pounded. When she opened her eyes the room was fuzzier than the inside of her head.

Had that red mist always been there? Was everything in the room always that vibrantly colored? Were her mother’s eyes always that deep gold color? Why had the designs on the walls and carpets suddenly become so much more extravagant than they were a minute ago? Why was everything so intricate?

“We could have you shipped off to military school, or put into an orphanage to rot.” Her mother’s grip tightened and Reina looked into her eyes in fear. “Or we could just drop you into a ditch and bury you!” Her voice morphed into a twisted and garbled mess as her very skin seemed to de-age itself. Any blemish or spot of any kind vanished before Reina’s very eyes. Her mother’s normal at-home clothes were replaced with silken robes and fluffy slippers, the kind a person of great wealth wears in their free time.

“M-Mom..?” Reina stuttered out. “W-What… are you wearing?”

_“And now you’re insulting your mother’s attire?”_ The woman drawled in a threateningly seductive sounding voice. _“I should have thrown you away the second I first had a chance you ungrateful, pathetic brat!”_

Like a wall after a basketball smacks into it, Reina remained unfazed by the words of her mother. It was more everything else happening around her that caused her breathing to speed up and her limbs to begin trembling. The dining room had elongated itself, the table had at least doubled in size, the windows had grown faster than plants and the room was outlined in gold, marble, and silver. Reina yanked her arm back, away from her mother out of pure desperation. “Get away from me! GET AWAY FROM ME!!” She shrieked, finally managing to loosen her mother’s grip and pull away. She fell backwards, hitting the floor with a small cry of pain. Her eyes never left her mother’s face as the older woman’s expression twisted with malice. Reina scrambled back and away from her mother in desperation.

And then her head stopped pounding.

She blinked, and everything was back to normal. She looked up to her mother, now back to normal and wearing a more normal-seeming smug expression, and covered her face with her hands, angling her head towards the ground.

“Something wrong, Reina?” Anya tilted her head at her daughter, her smug smirk still present on her face despite Reina’s obvious distress.

“What the hell was that..?” She ignored the words of her mother, staring at the once again normal floor through her fingers.

“What did you say?”

“I-I don’t feel well.” Reina practically scrambled to her feet. “I’m going to get some fresh air.”

Before her mother could say another word, Reina made a bee-line for the door. She didn’t even bother to put shoes on her feet as she launched herself out of the apartment, slamming the door behind her and dashing directly to the next door over. Her hands struggled to lift the doormat and grasp the key hidden underneath it. She jammed the key into the lock and pushed the door open, ducking inside and slamming it behind her before turning the lock closed once again. Her breathing finally managed to slow after a few moments of gripping the inside door handle and keeping her eyes squarely focused on one particular mark made in the paint. The mark was tiny. So small that anyone who didn’t know it was there would never notice it. But, of course, Reina knew it was there. It was a small scratch likely left in the paint by the people who had last applied the coat of light brown to the metal underneath. Scratch was probably too much to describe this small mark, it was more like a divot in the door itself. Her friend had insisted on referring to it as a dent when he had noticed it for the first time. They were five then. They didn’t know any bigger words.

Her phone buzzed. She pulled it out of her pocket, assuming it was a message from her mother or the school. She was probably in trouble again. She was surprised to find that her phone was not buzzing with a message.

An app she had never seen before was jumping out at her from behind the screen. It was red and black, and the app displayed the outline of an eye across the center.

She didn’t remember downloading anything like that. She hardly ever downloaded new apps, and certainly never one that looked as shady as this. Under normal circumstances, she never would have opened it. But these were far from normal circumstances. She pressed her thumb to the screen.

**Palace discovered. Beginning transportation.**

‘Palace what now?’ Reina’s confusion only grew as the words materialized on her screen. The starkly deep red background of the app contrasted the black lettering of the words. Upon slightly closer inspection, the app seemed more like a GPS or map-type application than anything. The only really important questions about the nature of this app were what it meant by ‘Palace’ and how it had gotten onto her phone in the first place. She let out a weighty sigh. Her head began pounding again. The room felt as though it were spinning and spinning and spinning all over again. The red mist, elongated windows, gold, marble, silver trims were all back. But, this time, her own mother was replaced with a pair of guards, looming over her. Their faces were concealed by large black masks which Reina could swear shouldn’t be sticking to their faces like that. Their clothing was compromised of simple guard uniforms that seemed as though they had been lifted directly from some kind of RPG.

Reina took a shaky step back as the guards lumbered towards her. Her back made contact with the door, and she realized it was over. They were too close for her to open the door and scramble to freedom without being caught during the effort. She pressed herself against the door and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the massive hands of the guards to wrap around her neck and squeeze the life right out of her.

She waited to see her friend’s face again.

_Truly an unjust game you have been thrust into, my dear._

She blinked at the unfamiliar voice. Her eyes snapped open and her head darted around the room, looking for the source of the suspiciously snake-like words.

_However, if I have managed to reach you, there may be hope for you yet._

“Who’s there!?” Reina demanded, glancing around one last time as the guards inched ever closer.

_What’s the matter dear? Going to stand by and allow yourself to be killed?_

Reina sucked in her breath, staring down her would-be assailants dead on. Figuring out who that voice was could wait. She had to focus for now.

_Your death awaits you, child. Do you truly wish to join your friend so soon? Was your decision yesterday truly a mistake?_

“Decision…?” She remembered stepping onto the train. Stepping onto the train instead of… “…of course it wasn’t…”

_Then answer me this, child._

Reina closed her eyes again.

_Do you want to live?_

She clenched her teeth.

_Do you want to live for your friend who no longer can?_

She sucked in her breath.

_Do you want to fight for him?_

She wrapped her fists around the hem of her shirt.

_Do you want to defy the system that cared so little as to allow him to die?_

She bit her bottom lip.

_Well, child?_

She moved her head.

_Do you?_

She grinned.

_I am thou. Thou art I._

_Thou who art willing to perform acts of heresy for the sake of protecting the weak._

_Call upon my name, and release thy RAGE!_

She blinked.

The guards had been blown backwards. Not enough to consider the threat as having passed, but enough for her to at least have a moment to collect her thoughts. A moment to take better notice of her surroundings.

A moment to notice the suspicious mask now stuck to her face.

“What…?” She reached up, forming a grip on the mask and pulling forward. Something compelled her to pull the mask forward, to remove it from her face, but the mask didn’t seem to want to budge in the slightest. And yet she continued to pull, screaming as loud as her lungs could muster as the mask finally began to separate itself from her skin. Her eyesight became drenched in a familiar red as the now separated mask disappeared from her hands. A smug grin took shape on her formerly hopeless features. She didn’t even register the other changes around her, such as the column of blue flames that had erupted the minute her mask was ripped off, or the odd new clothing covering her body. Her entire being overflowed with an unmistakable sense of power. “Come… Lilith!”

Reina noticed the blue flame this time as she screamed almost as loud as she had before. A splitting pain launched itself through her skull as she clung to her face. The blood that covered her eyes a minute ago seemed to have already completely disappeared. She peered through her fingers as the blue flames seemed to take a specific shape before her. They gathered to form what looked more and more like the outline of a person. The flames exploded violently outward, coating the entire room in a blanket of fire. Reina had thrown her arms up, expecting to shout in severe pain upon contact with tremendous heat, only to feel nothing.

_Come, child. Focus._

Reina glanced over her arms. Her eyes landed on the figure stood about four feet ahead of her. Most of its body was turned to face the guards while its head was turned to look at Reina herself.

“Who… are you…?”

The figure smiled, its black lips curled into a grin, slightly warping the tattoos on its cheeks and the rest of its face. It lifted a long-nailed hand to push a strand of pitch-black hair away from its golden eyes. However, none of this is what truly drew Reina’s attention. Her eyes were instead drawn to the large brown-spotted snake that was wrapped around the figure’s shoulders and torso.

_Come, child. That is not important now._

The voice had unmistakably come from the figure itself. It moved a hand to stroke the snake’s head.

_All you must know is that I am on your side, and that we are here to defeat your enemies. Now, unleash your inner power, child!_

Reina paused, clenching her fists and looking past the figure. The two guards certainly didn’t look the same as she remembered them looking a minute ago, with more of a… horse-like appearance than they had had before.

“Mabufudyne!” Reina was not sure where the word had come from exactly. Something inside her had told her to shout it out, and, at the moment, trusting her instincts really seemed like a good idea.

The figure’s grin extended as it turned back to the two horse-like guards. One of its arms swept out before it. A curtain of ice fell onto the two guards, freezing the both of them completely solid. It only took a moment before a similar gesture from the figure had both frozen monsters completely obliterated into nothing more than chunks of ice, scattered across the ground.

_Well done, child. You are quite powerful._

The figure had turned again to smile at Reina, its teeth a perfect pearly white and its sparkling eyes bearing down on her.

_I suppose I ought to explain now._

“Who are you?” Reina repeated her earlier question, somehow finding the strength to stand firmly on her own two feet. She took a step forward, away from the door behind her.

_My name is Lilith._

The figure gave Reina a kind smile as it moved to stroke the snake’s head once again.

_I am your Persona._

“Persona..?”

_Or, as some others may call me._

The figure lifted one hand, pointing her long nail directly at Reina’s heart.

_I am your other self._


	4. Chapter 3

“Akame-san! Akame-san!”

 

“Huh!?” Reina jolted awake, her entire body nearly leaping right out of her desk from the fright the teacher gave her. “S-Sorry!”

 

“Well, since we know you’ve been paying such close attention to class, Akame-san, maybe you can answer this simple question for us.” The teacher paused with a slightly smug smile on his face. “What is Bipolar Personality Disorder?”

 

“It’s when someone has episodes of both manic happiness and intense depression. They switch between the two seemingly at random. Um… I think it’s like that?” She looked up at her teacher with slightly questioning eyes as she finished her answer. 

 

“That is correct.” The teacher seemed surprised as he continued his explanation of the concept, going into far more depth than Reina could have ever hoped to in her answer. As the teacher continued, Reina noticed two people through the window on the classroom door. “Ah, sorry everyone, but it’s time for us to introduce our new transfer student.”

 

The entire classroom broke out into almost frantic-seeming whispers. Reina, having no one to whisper to, was content to sit back and listen to everyone else’s reactions to the news of this new addition to their class. 

 

“Sorry, Ushimaru-sensei.” Kawakami’s voice could be heard just outside the door. “Could you introduce him? I gotta get back to the faculty office.” She sighed, rubbing the back of her head.

 

“Don’t worry, Kawakami-sensei, I can handle it.” The male teacher smiled before moving his eyes to the other person stood outside the door, extending an arm as if gesturing for him to come inside the room. 

 

The first thing visible about the new student was a mess of black hair and a pair of thick-rimmed glasses. His eyes were completely hidden behind their glint. He wore the male version of the school’s uniform, and his bag was over his right shoulder. Reina ran her eyes over him. For a tall, otherwise confident-seeming boy, his posture was meek and almost submissive. As if inviting everyone trample over him as much as they pleased. She could see how this boy could be seen as pitiable, even pathetic. She wondered if she ever looked this weak. 

 

She wondered if that was why everyone around her kept looking at her that way.

 

“Please write your name on the board.” The teacher instructed the new student. He nodded, turning to grab a piece of chalk and lift it to the board. He elegantly crafted the letters of his name with the white powder. His handwriting was a lot nicer than Reina had expected.

 

‘Akira Kurusu.’ Was written on the board when he finally set the chalk down and turned to face the class once again. “Akira Kurusu.” He recited in a low, quiet voice. 

 

She liked his voice. Not that she would ever say that to him or to anyone who even had a remote chance of ever holding a conversation with him. 

 

She liked his name too. She couldn’t help but think that, if she ever had a child of her own, she might want to name them Akira. Not that she ever wanted to have a child of her own.

 

“Would you like to tell us about yourself, Kurusu-kun?” The teacher looked to the new student after almost ten full seconds of complete silence.

 

The way that everyone had erupted into whispers as soon as the new transfer student was mentioned, Reina assumed that Akira Kurusu didn’t need to say anything about himself. Everyone had seemingly already done plenty research of their own on their new classmate. Akira Kurusu just nodded, named his hometown, and said that he wished he could be friends with his classmates before bowing and taking his seat directly behind the girl with the sparkling blue eyes and pale blonde twin-tails. Two desks in front of Reina herself. 

 

“Isn’t he a criminal?”

 

He certainly didn’t look like one. 

 

He looked like a kid that criminals would go after when they wanted to make a quick buck with hardly any effort.

 

“Yeah, he’s supposed to be on probation.”

 

If she had any real desire to make a connection, she would have asked him if those rumors that people kept whispering around her were accurate. 

 

_He would make a good confidant._

 

_‘Shut up, Lilith.’_

 

_I was simply making an observation~_

 

Reina leaned her head against her hand, moving her eyes out the window and ignoring the lesson completely. No matter what her mother wanted to pretend Kawakami had written about her, Reina couldn’t be bothered to really give half a care about anything anyone said in school. The only reason she even showed up anymore was to avoid giving her teachers any actual reason to inform her parents of anything. 

 

Moments later, her arm grew tired from propping up her chin. She elected to face-plant on the desk instead, closing her eyes and letting out a light sigh.

 

Finally, the bell went off, signaling the beginning of lunchtime. Before she could even gather her things, a blond male had already stormed into the classroom and marched right over to the new kid. She recognized him immediately as the blond with the brown eyes of the class next door. 

 

“Yo, Kurusu, we gotta talk.” He immediately demanded. The black-haired boy looked up at him and nodded, standing to follow as the first rushed out the door. Reina couldn’t help but notice the pale-blond girl with the sparkling blue eyes staring after the two of them. 

 

Reina gathered her things, pulling her schoolbag over her shoulder and grabbing her lunchbox from the inside of her desk before heading out of the classroom. She made her way down the hall, some part of her was probably following after Akira Kurusu and the blond boy, but the rest of her was coming up with some kind of convoluted excuse for why she was going the exact same direction that they were. 

 

“Okay, so.” The blond started once he and Akira Kurusu were safely in the alley across the street from the school. “Are we gonna talk about what the _hell_ happened this morning!?” Reina was stood just around the corner. Close enough to hear everything that was said while being far away enough that her presence was not obvious.

 

“I told you, that’s what’s called a Palace.” Reina sucked in her breath, covering her hand with her mouth as she inched closer to the corner. This voice was unfamiliar. Not that of the blond or the new student. And yet it triggered a feeling of deja vu. Even if she couldn’t remember where from, she had definitely heard that voice somewhere before.  “It’s a manifestation of a person’s distorted desires. It can even warp the minds of those around it in the real world, regardless of whether or not they have a presence in the metaverse.” 

 

“And why was that bastard Kamoshida calling himself a ‘king’ and shit!?” The blond’s voice demanded again. 

 

Her eyes widened slightly. It shouldn’t have been a surprise to her that someone like Kamoshida would have a Palace, but, somehow, the fact that she hadn’t stumbled into it at some point lead the revelation into being a surprise. 

 

“I told you.” The unfamiliar voice was full of exasperation. “It’s his Palace. It’s a manifestation of his malicious desires and the way he sees himself.” The voice sighed. “So, he must see himself as the king of your school.”

 

That certainly was not a surprise. From the way Reina had seen Kamoshida treating the pale-blonde with the sparkling blue eyes and the way he had even treated her herself, it was not even remotely surprising that he would see himself as some kind of ruler over the school who couldn’t be punished for his actions.

“Aight, so then what was that weird thing that jumped outta Kurusu earlier? With the whole mask ’n shit?” 

 

A Persona-user? Half of Reina jumped for absolute joy upon hearing the blond’s next line. The other half felt a pang of fear go through her heart upon the knowledge that someone else around her could now access this world that she had previously thought was exclusive to her. 

 

“That was called a Persona.” Reina tuned out the rest of the explanation, more wrapped up in what this new development meant. Not like she needed to listen to the explanation anyways. “Anyways, what’s important is that we have to go back into that Palace.”

 

“What!? Why!?” Reina was honestly surprised that every teacher in the whole school didn’t pile out from hearing the blond scream so loudly. 

 

“If we don’t steal the treasure at the end of the Palace, then Kamoshida will stay the way he is. His malicious energy and twisted desires will start affecting the other people who spend great amounts of time inside the school.” There was some new information. Treasure at the end of the Palace? Was it possible for one person to go after something like that on their own? She had revisited her first Palace multiple times, fighting her way closer to the end little by little, but she had never imagined that there was actually some kind of goal for her to be working towards. Could she really change her mother’s heart? Could her mother become a good person if she accomplished this new goal set before her? Most of her doubted it was even possible, but…

 

Could she do it alone? That was her biggest concern if she really wanted to go through with this. Then the next question would be if she could ask Akira Kurusu and this other person for help. Even the blond guy may be able to help her if she was desperate enough. At least he knew who she was. Maybe he could even help her convince Akira Kurusu if need be. But, at the same time, her mother’s Palace was her problem. She was not sure dragging other people into it and potentially putting them in serious danger was worth it. If there was even a chance she could do it all on her own, then that’s what she would do.

 

“What’s the plan?” That was the first time she heard Akira Kurusu speak during the conversation. Shy even around people he already knew. She made a mental note of both that and the fact that he likely didn’t even know these two very well anyways, so they may not have been the most accurate judge for how he acted around people he trusted.

 

“We’re going into the Palace right after school. That’s the damn plan!” The blond’s voice was way too loud. 

 

“Can you please _calm down,_ Sakamoto.” 

 

“Why don’t you shut yer damn mouth, Morgana!” Sakamoto snapped back at the newer voice. Morgana. There was something familiar about the name Morgana. She would have to figure it out later.

 

“As much as I wish he would calm down,” Morgana sighed, “he’s right. We should go back into the Palace right after school and start our search for the treasure.”

 

The plan was set, Reina made a mental note to keep tabs on Akira Kurusu until the end of the day so she could follow him, Sakamoto, and this Morgana into Kamoshida’s Palace. She stepped away from the alley, walking back into the school building so as to avoid discovery once the three of them were finished talking. 

 

_Quite an interesting development, wouldn’t you say, Reina~?_

 

_‘Do you think we can trust them?’_

 

_How am I supposed to know that? There’s not much I know that you don’t. I am simply an extension of your own desires, not some all-knowing deity._

 

_‘Yeah, I know that. You’re supposed to give me advice.’_

 

_I believe the plan you already have is more than adequate. From what we have seen, they do not appear to have negative intentions, but we can never be certain._

_‘So I should follow them and decide based on what they do in Kamoshida’s Palace?’_

 

_Yes, I believe so._

 

_‘Alright. Get ready for some new shadows to fight.’_

 

_I am already looking forward to it~_

 

If Reina hadn’t been so focused on the conversation happening inside her head as she walked back into the school building, she would have noticed Akira Kurusu staring after her with confusion and even light suspicion in his eyes.

 


	5. Chapter 4

Kamoshida’s Palace was about as extravagant as Reina had been expecting it to be. It was somehow even more grand and expansive than her mother’s own Palace, and was filled to the brim with even more guards. She elected to stay in the shadows to avoid unneeded conflict. She was sure that, if she traveled the same route Akira Kurusu, Sakamoto, and Morgana were traveling, she would get murdered by a gang of guards. Even with Lilith, she was far from invincible.

 

When, from her far distance away, she saw Akira Kurusu and the odd little creature she suspected to be Morgana fall to a group of the guards and King Kamoshida himself, she had to fight off a sudden overwhelming desire to jump in and help. Just before she gave in, Sakamoto started screaming. A high-pitched, nearly blood-curdling scream. The scream of a Persona-user. The mask was ripped from his face, and the pillar of blue flame erupted from Sakamoto’s body. His Persona formed, and Reina knew she didn’t need to step in to help. Continuing to monitor the three seemed like the best choice. If they were overwhelmed down the line, Reina could always swoop in then.

 

And then Sakamoto starting freaking out at the sight of what was, quite obviously, a completely fabricated copy of the girl with the pale-blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes. Morgana insisted the three of them run once three more guards materialized in front of them. Reina would have agreed if she were a member of the group. Unfortunately, it took Akira Kurusu and Morgana practically dragging him away to get Sakamoto to leave with them.

Reina quickly followed the group, passing one last glance ‘King Kamoshida’s’ way before darting through the shadows, avoiding the eyes of the guards still swarming the first floor of the massive structure.

 

The outside of the Palace was not much better. The area Reina’s ‘charges’ (as she had decided to call them) had elected to camp out in technically was not outside the metaverse, so all of them remained in their Persona-user getup. (Description when Renee finishes the design).

 

“I don’t remember changin’ into this!” Sakamoto declared. The tone of his voice was hard to read from Reina’s distance, but Akira Kurusu’s quick complimentary response seemed to garner some level of mild embarrassment from his companion. “Whatever, at least it ain’t as bad as yours.”

 

Akira Kurusu looked absolutely appalled for a brief moment before giving Sakamoto a small smile.

 

“Shut up!” Morgana commanded. The shouts of Kamoshida’s guards could be heard through the walls of the castle itself. Reina drew slightly closer to the three she was shadowing. The closer she was to them the less chance she had of being killed should she be caught.

 

“What the hell’s goin’ on? I’m so lost, man.” Sakamoto whispered once it sounded as though the coast was clear.

 

“We’ve been over this.” Morgana’s voice was just dripping with annoyance as he crossed his cat-like arms. “When a Persona-user confronts the ruler of a Palace, this happens. The costume prevents you from being affected by distortions.”

 

“So… I’m wearin’ a skull..?”

 

“The appearance reflects your inner self. Or the rebel that slumbers within.” The cat-like being sighed. “Not that you’d ever understand.”

 

“Yeah, sorry,” Sakamoto stated in defeat.

“Then stop asking dumb questions and just accept what you see.” Morgana shot back.

 

“Oh my god we’re in deep shit!” Sakamoto practically yelled. Reina resisted the urge to lunge out and strangle him.

 

“I said shut up!” The cat shot back, glaring Sakamoto down.

 

“Even if we got away here, we’re still screwed with the real one!”

 

“Chill, Sakamoto. The real Kamoshida won’t remember anything about this. Humans don’t share memories with their shadows.” Morgana seemed smug about being able to talk down to Sakamoto about this. “We’re safe as soon as we get back to the real world.”

 

“Aight, now that we’ve got that down, all we gotta do is–“

 

“Hold up. Remember your end of the bargain?” Morgana interrupted, shifting his eyes to focus on Akira Kurusu as opposed to Sakamoto.

 

Reina blinked and inched closer. This part of the conversation must have occurred after she went back inside.

 

“I guided you and taught you about the metaverse, so the two of you have to help me regain my true form from the depths of Mementos!” Morgana went off on a small mini-rant about chivalry and repaying debts or something. Reina stopped paying attention after a little bit. It seemed pointless since she had already predicted what was going to happen.

 

“Yeah, sorry. I don’t remember making a promise like that.” As if on cue, Sakamoto piped in. Exactly as Reina had thought he would. “We’re gonna head out. See ya later.”

 

Reina was more surprised that Akira Kurusu had agreed to go with Sakamoto, and ran after the blond with no questions whatsoever, leaving the small cat-like creature all alone. Reina herself, somewhat assured that Morgana could take care of himself, followed behind Sakamoto and Akira Kurusu. Less out of concern for them, and more out of her own desire to escape from the Palace. It was not a pleasant-feeling place.

 

The return to the real-world was smooth and simple. Akira Kurusu and Sakamoto landed in the alley across from the school. Reina was lucky to have landed a few feet behind them so she had time to duck behind the wall at the mouth of the alley. The following conversation was typical and not really worth paying much attention to. Sakamoto showed some concern for his companion while Akira Kurusu assured him that he was fine, not tired at all, and had no injuries whatsoever. Reina doubted most of what Akira Kurusu said. No one comes away from a situation like that one full of energy and without a single scratch.

 

“Once we make him fess up to any of his physical abuse, then Kamoshida will be done for. So, wanna help me look for those guys or any other witnesses?”

 

“Sure.” She could practically hear the small smile in Akira Kurusu’s voice. She liked the sound of him smiling. It made her want to smile too.

 

“Awesome!” Sakamoto visibly pumped his fist before coming to a stop. “Hold up, we gotta be careful though. You’ve got a record right?”

 

Her eyes widened slightly. Looked like she wouldn’t have to ask after all.

 

There was no verbal response for a good 10 seconds before she could hear a meek, “…how did everyone find out so fast?”

 

“Musta been Kamoshida. Only a teacher coulda got the info leaked so fast. And no teacher is enough of a scum bag to do it other than that asshole.” Sakamoto’s voice filled with disdain and traces of rage. Memories of a time not long ago, when the name Ryuji Sakamoto had very different connotations around the school, had not completely faded from Reina’s mind.“…no one’ll take what I say seriously… even if those rumors about him gettin’ physical are real.”

 

‘But they’ll take the word of the school’s biggest benefactor seriously.’ Was all Reina could think as Sakamoto continued his short speech. ‘I could… really help them. I could help save kids from what happened… to Rin…’

 

_Is that not why you called upon me?_

 

_‘Of course, it is.’_

 

_Then what is your hesitation?_

 

_‘I have none.’_

 

Reina’s face morphed into a confident grin.

 

_‘As soon as Akira Kurusu and Ryuji Sakamoto collect the needed evidence, I’m going to prove that Suguru Kamoshida is a goddamn monster.’_


End file.
